Activist Graduate School is a rigorous online school for activists.

We offer an academically rigorous curriculum grounded in history, theory and strategy. Our pedagogical approach enables activists to become critical activists by expanding their repertoire of collective action and evolving how they approach the challenge of social change.

Our school’s educational model is to teach, and film, in-person activist courses at academic institutions. Thus far, our partner institutions include Bard College and UCLA. We then edit this course footage into a condensed version and supplement it with a guest lecture by one or more distinguished activists on a provocative topic—such as, “Why Do Protests Fail?”. Together, this becomes the content for the online course.

Online students read the course materials, watch the videos, and complete the same assignments as the in-person seminar. The online courses are ungraded. There is a teaching assistant who gives feedback and moderates the online discussion. Our model is designed to scale and reach far more students than would otherwise be possible.

The pressing social issue that we endeavor to solve is the declining effectiveness of contemporary activism.

Our goal is to create a safe educational environment for the practical, urgent and important task of addressing the deep theoretical and strategic challenges facing social movement creators. The most profound outcome of the Activist Graduate School will be the birth of new social movements, fresh ways of thinking about activism and innovative forms of protest.

Activist Graduate School has received the Roddenberry Fellowship, Voqal Fellowship and National Endowment for the Humanities/Hannah Arendt Center Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Bard College.